UK posts 80,830 Covid cases in 14% weekly drop but deaths and hospitalisations rise

The number of cases compares with 94,525 posted last Tuesday (March 22) – a fall of 14 per cent in a week.

However the number of Covid deaths is substantially bigger than in recent days and is the highest since February 3.

The latest daily figure brings the UK’s official pandemic death toll to 164,974.

Worryingly for the NHS, the number of patients with Covid-19 in hospital is continuing to rise. According to the latest update, 19,118 hospital patients had the virus on Monday, 748 more than the day before.

The government’s “patients in hospital” metric has rise every day since March 5, when the number was 10,873.

Earlier on Tuesday it was revealed that the number of coronavirus patients in Scotland’s hospitals reached a new record high as figures rose for the fourth day in a row.

Latest Scottish Government figures show there were 2,383 people in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19 on Monday, up 23 on the previous day.

The latest update came as a new survey suggested the proportion of people who fully self-isolate after testing positive for Covid-19 has fallen “significantly” since the rules were scrapped in England at the end of February.

Some 64 per cent of people questioned said they had followed the full advice for self-isolating, down sharply from 80 per cent in early February when isolation was a legal requirement.